Generally described, large scale computer systems often contain several computing devices and large amounts of data. In such a system, computing devices are often added and removed. Likewise, existing computing devices are often changed through the addition of shares, exchange storage groups, databases, volumes, and other changes to data stored on the computing devices. For organizations utilizing such a computer system, there is generally a need to protect the data stored on the system, often by creating a backup of the data.
However, individuals responsible for protecting the system are often not informed of additions and/or changes to the system and, therefore, are unaware of new resources that need protection. For example, if a new computing device such as a server is added to the system and the individual responsible for protecting the system is not informed of the addition, data on the new computing device and the new computing device, may remain unprotected.
This problem increases for systems that allow individuals to operate within the system at a logical level rather than at a physical level. While individuals operate at the logical level, protection is typically determined at the physical level. In such an environment, problems may occur when operations at the logical level require changes to the backup procedure. For example, if the logical path \\history\public\tools points to a share on server history1 and it is decided to move \\history\public\tools to point to a different share on server history2, if the individual responsible for protection is not informed of the change, the old share may continue to be protected while the new share remains unprotected.
The problem increases still further when a single logical path may represent a set of physical alternatives that contains synchronized copies of the underlying data. For example, \\history\docs may point to identical shares on both history1 and history2; only one of the identical underlying folders should be protected by the system.
Failure to protect material on a large system typically results because the individual responsible for protection must manually identify resources and the data that is to be protected and manually configure the protection. As the system changes, unless they become aware of the change, data and resources may go unprotected. Additionally, for archiving backups of data to physical media, the individual must manually determine what media is to be used for protection and when/how to rotate the media. For large systems, manually identifying changes, configuring protection, and maintaining archives are complex and changes are difficult. Such manual identification, configuration, and modification of protection often results in omission of data and resources that need protection and problems with the protection itself.
When problems do arise, typically the individual must be able to determine the problem at a detailed level and have knowledge as to how to resolve the problem without being provided information from the protection system itself.
Thus, there is a need for a system, method, and apparatus for automating the protection of a computer system, identifying when changes to the system occur, providing guidance to a user when problems arise with protection, and allowing individuals to create protection by working in a logical namespace.